What remains of Leo XIV’s trip to Spain? And how will this journey influence his next trip to France?
After Leo XIV’s important visit to Spain, and as another stop in the heart of Europe is being prepared, we must understand what message the Pope wants to convey to the Old Continent, and how. And so it’s natural to look back on the trip to Spain.
Travels to Spain and France are conceptually similar. Both are nations with a solid Christian tradition. Both are described as strongly secularized, and the political direction adopted by their current governments demonstrates this, in some ways. Both are nations of the Old Continent, with a solid history and a national construction. Both were colonial powers, responsible for bringing Catholicism to the world—Spain with the great missions in America by those later called conquistadors , France with the system of protectorates in Asia that set a model until the last century .
Both nations are considered highly secularized. But the numbers tell a different story. Leo XIV gathered 1.2 million people at Cibeles in Madrid, and the enthusiasm with which the inauguration of the Tower of Jesus at the Sagrada Familia was followed was unparalleled . In France, the Pope finds himself in a religious situation that the Catholic Church itself is struggling to understand, to the point that a Regional Council has been convened for the Île- de-France region : this concerns the phenomenon of adult baptisms, which has been steadily growing in recent years, reaching a peak of just over 21,000 on Easter night this year.
So, there is a red line connecting the Pope’s trip to Spain to the Pope’s trip to France.
And it is worth retracing the two great diplomatic speeches of Leo XIV in Madrid: the speech given on 6, and the second, the historic speech to the Cortes , or the joint Chambers, held on 8 June.
The two speeches are different in their audiences, but similar in their model. And the model is first and foremost to look at the roots, at the Catholicism that has permeated Spanish culture and, above all, given rise to civil society.
In front of the diplomatic corps, Leo XIV set as examples Saint John of the Cross and Saint Teresa of Avila; in front of the Parliament, he looked to the School of Salamanca, the Dominicans who founded human rights with their reflections on relations with the inhabitants of the New World.
Because there is a spiritual, religious world behind Spanish society, just as there is a religious work behind French society . And it is no coincidence that John Paul II, in Paris in 1997 for World Youth Day, noted that the concept of fraternity in the revolutionary motto liberté, contained a Christian idea.
In front of the diplomatic corps accredited in Spain, Leo XIV had decided not to give his speech a purely political tone. However, the speech did include a request for Spain to maintain the European vocation of pluralism and dialogue that had been part of its history.
Peace was the theme present in both the speech to the Spanish diplomatic corps and the one to the Cortes. In the first speech, Leo XIV had asked us to open ourselves to the message of peace, without preconditions, opening ourselves to the truth that “is always greater than us” and amazes us.
In the Spanish Parliament, Leo XIV went further, noting the spiritual and cultural crisis of the world that peace was bringing, and making it a moral imperative. The Pope called for a public discourse “that respects those who think differently,” “a historical memory that seeks truth and reconciliation,” and “a social life capable of sustaining civil friendship and mutual respect in the midst of disagreements.”
Leo XIV also noted that peace requires “diplomatic courage, ethical responsibility” and a vision based on respect for the identity of each people and on the obligation of States to resolve their disputes through the peaceful means offered by international law.
Before the Cortes, however, Leo XIV had also emphasized the importance of life, from conception to natural death, had defended the concept of familia, and even the increasingly under attack secrecy of confession. And it’s a safe bet that these are all themes that will recur in speeches in France, where on July 15th a law on euthanasia was passed , strongly contested by the Catholic world and beyond, which opens the way to assisted suicide without even considering the possibility of conscientious objection for pharmacists.
And it is on these themes that the trips to France and Spain are constrained . Faced with a world order built without God, with increasingly secularized societies, there is instead a need for faith, certified by the faithful, and a tradition of faith that endures despite secularization. And Leo XIV considers these places as the periphery of faith, the places where faith is marginalized.
But the Pope cannot conceive of diplomacy without truth – he explained this in his first speech to the diplomatic corps accredited to the Holy See after his election – and this Truth can only be born of faith.
This is the message the Pope brought to Spain, including his encounter with the plight of migrants in the Canary Islands, and which he will also convey in Paris. There will be a speech at UNESCO, where the Pope will also address the tragedy of attacks on religious cultural heritage, as well as the idea of a “cultural genocide” spreading in some regions, such as Armenia. But the Pope will also speak to young people, celebrate Mass at the Stade de France, arrive in Lourdes to meet with the French Episcopal Conference, and finally in Metz, for Europe Day.
And the speech in Metz will be crucial for understanding the Europe Leo XIV envisions. The legacy of the trip to Spain is crucial in this sense and will also help us understand the speech in Metz, when Leo XIV will pay homage to the venerable Robert Schuman, founding father of the European Union.
Today, many want to appropriate the Church’s thought and ideas. The Holy See, instead, is trying to return to the diplomatic themes that characterized post-World War II Europe, which led to an era of relative peace. Visiting France and Spain, ultimately, also means a return to the origins of thought. And there is a need for it.